t having to lean on any external prop, we should
have to make additions to Mr. Rowntree's figure which have not yet been
computed, but as to which it is probably well within the mark to say
that none but the most highly skilled artisans are able to earn a
remuneration meeting the requirements of the case. But, if that is so,
it is clear that the system of industrial competition fails to meet the
ethical demand embodied in the conception of the "living wage." That
system holds out no hope of an improvement which shall bring the means
of such a healthy and independent existence as should be the birthright
of every citizen of a free state within the grasp of the mass of the
people of the United Kingdom. It is this belief slowly penetrating the
public mind which has turned it to new thoughts of social regeneration.
The sum and substance of the changes that I have mentioned may be
expressed in the principle that the individual cannot stand alone, but
that between him and the State there is a reciprocal obligation. He owes
the State the duty of industriously working for himself and his family.
He is not to exploit the labour of his young children, but to submit to
the public requirements for their education, health, cleanliness and
general well-being. On the other side society owes to him the means of
maintaining a civilized standard of life, and this debt is not
adequately discharged by leaving him to secure such wages as he can in
the higgling of the market.

This view of social obligation lays increased stress on public but by no
means ignores private responsibility. It is a simple principle of
applied ethics that responsibility should be commensurate with power.
Now, given the opportunity of adequately remunerated work, a man has the
power to earn his living. It is his right and his duty to make the best
use of his opportunity, and if he fails he may fairly suffer the penalty
of being treated as a pauper or even, in an extreme case, as a criminal.
But the opportunity itself he cannot command with the same freedom. It
is only within narrow limits that it comes within the sphere of his
control. The opportunities of work and the remuneration for work are
determined by a complex mass of social forces which no individual,
certainly no individual workman, can shape. They can be controlled, if
at all, by the organized action of the community, and therefore, by a
just apportionment of responsibility, it is for the community to dea